I’m calling it that because we walked ~ 7 miles between the East and West sides of the Southern Illinois University campus – I can only estimate between the buildings visited and the walking tour. Providing trams or golf carts or even tickets for the free-to-students campus shuttle buses would have been a nice touch, especially since the cold winds were fierce enough that Pita was glad of her winter coat and I had a zipped jacket and hood pulled up. I’ve unofficially gotten in my steps for the next few years I believe – maybe I should list them on Marketplace 🙂
Being sent to eat at a dining hall (each campus has almost identical ones) on the opposite side of our next appointment is a hard fail imo, especially since a 1 pm slot for lunch at Trueblood dining hall (no joke on the name!) meant we had to walk the 1.2 miles there and back for the 2 pm slot…then back for the 3 pm dorm tour. And this wasn’t even the dorm Pita would be applying for, since most of her classes would be on the other side. Should also point out that after the first campus tour of about 15 people, these were self-guided, following a highlighted map provided, not a large group needing special transportation.
So today I just want to be home. If it’s gonna be cold and partly sunny, I’d prefer Dr. Who in the living room with my pets. Not to say this isn’t a very nice hotel, because it is and my vents will be pared down “somewhat” for the email survey that’s already been sent us 🙂 Pita was very happy with our meeting at Horticulture and that’s the most important part.
In a move that has taken way too long a time to come to fruition, Dollar Tree’s CEO announced it was selling Family Dollar to a couple of private equity firms – good luck with that one – for $1B, or only $7.7B less than they paid a decade ago. I’ve only been in a couple of their stores and the older ones were dirty and seemed staffed and shopped by some very sketchy people. Never saw the sense of the purchase in the first place, especially when the word synergy gets tossed around like a golden orb – more like a Magic Eight Ball in terms of future profits! Here’s the article from 
One Saturday Sampler this week, a 23.7 oz bottle of Gatorade water. Add by Sunday and redeem by Monday. Click on the 
No inserts in this week’s paper (3/23), but here’s a 3/30 Save preview. Not all papers carry the same coupons or values, so this national list might show coupons not found in the Chicago Tribune.